outsource

American  

[out-sawrs, ‑-sohrs] / ˈaʊtˌsɔrs, ‑ˌsoʊrs /

verb (used with object)

outsourced, outsourcing

1. (of a company or organization) to purchase (goods) or subcontract (services) from an outside supplier or source.

2. to contract out (jobs, services, etc.).

   a small business that outsources bookkeeping to an accounting firm.

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verb (used without object)

outsourced, outsourcing

1. to obtain goods or services from an outside source.

   U.S. companies who outsource from China.

outsource British  

/ ˌaʊtˈsɔːs /

verb

1. to subcontract (work) to another company

2. to buy in (components for a product) rather than manufacture them

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Other Word Forms

• outsourcing
  noun

Etymology

Origin of outsource

1975–80

Explanation

To outsource is to hire someone outside a company to do work. A newspaper might outsource some of its stories, paying freelance writers instead of using its full-time staff. When a business outsources, they either employ someone who freelances or works for another company, or they buy supplies from outside the company. Either way, it often involves paying less for the labor or goods, and many companies save money by outsourcing from other countries. This business term is relatively new, emerging in the 1980s from the verb source, "obtain from a particular source."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

outsource outsourced outsourcing

Tsimerman’s productivity has increased because he’s perfectly willing to outsource the boring parts of his job to AI.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

The company has chosen to outsource a portion of its AI capabilities through a partnership with Google Gemini.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026

But they added that to simply "outsource their thinking" to the tech would highlight its limits.

From BBC ● May 18, 2026

With Chinese companies having taken the lead in developing electric vehicles, he did not exclude the company deciding to outsource electrification to its Chinese partners.

From Barron's ● May 8, 2026

So we developed a software product called VTR— Virtual Tax Room—to enable these medium-size accounting firms to easily outsource tax returns.”

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

The alternative to outsourced childcare has a few invisible price tags, however.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026

The life I pictured appeared in View-Master slides, each image crisp and complete, with all the inconvenient connective tissue outsourced.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

After the Cold War, the U.S. and Europe closed most of their explosives factories and outsourced their dangers to Asia and elsewhere.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

The same holds for consulting firms that offer outsourced coding.

From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026

I had heard that JetBlue had outsourced its entire reservation system to housewives in Utah, and I wanted to check this out.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

It has warned outsourcing facilities for repackaging the drug, telehealth companies for marketing the unapproved drug to consumers, and distributors for selling retatrutide to compounders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

For more than 20 years, the Philippines built one of the world's most successful outsourcing industries by selling the skills of its people to multinational companies.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Concentrix - which is the biggest outsourcing firm in the Philippines - says its AI systems should remain under human oversight and has committed to training employees in the new technology.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

Cook’s first big move when he joined the company in 1998 was to implement a “just-in-time” inventory system by slashing unsold product storage times, consolidating suppliers and outsourcing manufacturing.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026

Glocer is a pioneer in the outsourcing of elements of the news supply chain.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman